Year walk journal1/5/2023 ![]() ![]() It is an unusual place for the schools to find themselves but there’s actually a really interesting business precedent for the way I anticipate it will play out. Whether it was the very public feud between Nick Saban and Jimbo Fisher, or Ryan Day’s recent assertion that the Ohio State football program would need to generate $13 million in NIL revenue for their team or risk losing players “with one phone call.” If you are a coach or athletic director, the stakes are high and the strategy is clear - give your players the best opportunity to earn money and they’ll give you the best opportunity to win (oh and to make some money yourself). None of this is new but the infusion of money from NIL is adding a dimension that many schools had not previously been prepared for. Athletic departments compete for the best coaches, coaches compete for the best players and players compete against one another to win championships. Independent of the sport, at its core college athletics is about competition. Based on that, it only stands to reason that more athletes will focus on authenticity and fan engagement as they let their biggest fans behind the curtain. Athletes know their biggest supporters are equally as interested in what they do off the field and brands are beginning to come to the realization that audience quantity may not equal audience quality. Vanity followership metrics aside, personal brand development also means being more cognizant of creating experiences your fans can enjoy. YEAR WALK JOURNAL PROFESSIONALThis decoupling of institutional athletic success from the earning potential of student athletes makes it clear that we are going to see much more care and consideration paid to cultivating a personal brand, an audience and community of fans that the athlete can own and take with them as they make decisions on where to play in the college or on professional level. ![]() On3 recently shared their list of the top 25 student athletes based on NIL valuation and of the top five, three had never played a game in college. That dynamic gave schools a tremendous amount of bargaining power as they owned the stage on which the athlete had to perform but the economic catalyst of NIL combined with pervasiveness of social media has dramatically swung the pendulum back in favor of the athletes themselves. Prior to social media, student athletes largely relied on their schools to give them the platform to develop a fan base, grow their brand and for some, build a résumé that could translate to significant money if the athlete pursued a professional career. As someone who leads an organization deeply involved in NIL and financial empowerment of student athletes, four of these building blocks are quite clear. If Year 1 represented the big bang for NIL, Year 2 represents the emergence of the clearly identifiable foundation on which NIL will be built for many years to come. That notion is gone and it’s never coming back but like any one-year-old there is a lot of room to develop and evolve, which is going to be thrilling to witness firsthand. For the athletes, agents, tech companies and brands, NIL represents an incredible opportunity that was tamped down for too long by overarching policies that romanticized the notion of the amateur student athlete. The NIL ecosystem and the individuals, organizations and technology that support it do not feel all that differently. If your one-year-old earned nearly a billion dollars you would probably be excited, confused and a little concerned about how they were doing it. If you were a parent, you would be excited to see your one-year-old walking, waving, or drinking out of a cup. ![]() ![]() Name, image, likeness monetization for student athletes turned one year old in July. ![]()
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